1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing electrochemical substrate slicing. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing electrochemical substrate slicing using electrochemical etching with electromagnetic (EM) wave excitation to affect etch anisotropy.
2. Description of Related Art
Silicon wafer cost accounts more than 50% for crystalline silicon wafer based PV (photovoltaic) cell production. The conventional method includes slicing a silicon ingot into wafers using a mechanical technique, such as a wire saw or (inner diameter) circular saw. However, the current state-of-art wire saw technique results in excess of about 180 micron of kerf loss. Electrochemical etching of silicon has been studied and generally understood.